Hits&Misses

Salary growth slows but Naspers appetite for Indian food grows

NASPERS

plans to raise its stake in Indian online food-delivery business Swiggy as the start-up plans its third fundraising round of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. Naspers has indicated it will support financing that could raise more than $600m (R8.7bn), Swiggy’s biggest fundraising to date.

THE

Zimbabwean government has removed a ban on imports of basic commodities as citizens battle with acute shortages. Products such as cement‚ bottled water‚ animal oils‚ body creams‚ cheese‚ cereals‚ ice cream‚ wheat flour and cooking oil can now be brought into the country by individuals.

SHOPRITE

would pay customers to reuse its newly introduced recyclable bag. Shoprite said each time customers reused its new 100% recycled and recyclable plastic bag, which costs R3 , at Shoprite and Checkers stores, they will get 50c off their groceries. EMPLOYED

South Africans, on average, received R15,299 in pay in September, said BankservAfrica. The growth in average takehome pay slowed to 2.2% in September, and in the past five years, if inflation is taken into account, the average annual growth of salaries after tax and other expenses has been 0.5%.

FAMOUS

Brands is placing Gourmet Burger Kitchen under the UK’s bankruptcy protection system with the help of auditing group Grant Thornton. This system is used “by financially distressed businesses in order to come to a binding agreement or compromise with their unsecured creditors”.

PROPERTY

group Octodec Investments is unable to develop its pipeline due to the sluggish economy, said CEO Jeffrey Wapnick. Octodec, which invests largely in the inner cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, said times were the toughest since it listed in 1990.